our kinsman, Arngeir, used and tended them when we were away in the ship
in summertime.

Now, one evening, as we came up from the shore after beaching the boat
on the hard below the town, and half a mile from the nearest houses, and
being, as one may suppose, not altogether in holiday trim, so that Grim
and his boys with their loads of fish and nets looked as though a
fisher's hovel were all the home that they might own, we saw a horseman,
followed at a little distance by two more, riding towards us. The dusk
was gathering, and at first we thought that this was Jarl Sigurd, who
would ask us maybe to send fish to his hall, and so we set our loads
down and waited for him.

But it was not our lord, and I had never seen this man before. From his
arms, which were of a new pattern to me, he might be one of the host of
Hodulf, as I thought.

"Ho, fisher!" he cried, when he was yet some way from us; "leave your
lads, and come hither. I have a word for you."

He reined up and waited, and now I was sure that he was a Norseman, for
his speech was rougher than ours. He was a tall, handsome man enough;
but I liked neither his voice nor face, nor did I care to hear Grim, my
father, summoned in such wise, not remembering that just now a stranger
could not tell that he was aught but a fisher thrall of the jarl's.

But my father did as he was asked, setting down the nets that he was
carrying, and only taking with him the long boathook on which he had
slung them as he went forward. I suppose he remembered the old saying,
that a man should not stir a step on land without his weapons, as one